A Superstitious W.G.

[archie mac]

If his run-up was not perfectly smooth, he would lose all confidence and his bowling would go tatters. He would concentrate everything on his approach to the wicket instead of simply getting the ball to the other end.

Do you reckon that I am right about the Spofforth farrago? I have encountered conflicting opinions before on that.

Interesting

I can't remember reading anything like that about Spofforth. Do you have the Cashman bio on 'The Demon'?

The book I was thinking of is 'The Games The Thing' by MA Noble. A very good read

 

[neville cardus]

Interesting
I can't remember reading anything like that about Spofforth. Do you have the Cashman bio on 'The Demon'?

Alas, I do not have Cashman's biography.

You know, of course, that Spofforth was a boastful man. Sir Home Gordon called him "pleasant but very conceited, persisting that he was the fastest bowler ever". John Trumble's testimony supports that one.

Harris, meanwhile, recalls that "I hit a ball back which injured his right hand; and he always said that he was never the same bowler after the second injury. He followed up his ball very far, and as I probably jumped in, he was very close, too close to put his hand in exactly the right place; else he was ordinarily a very good field to his own bowling, but so full of nerves, that a hard blow made more difference to him than to many."

The book I was thinking of is 'The Games The Thing' by MA Noble. A very good read

It is interesting that three men should have held the same ridiculous superstition. It was probably a traditional joke that, for the sake of perpetuity, was passed down by Spoff to the McLeods.

 

[archie mac]

Alas, I do not have Cashman's biography.

You know, of course, that Spofforth was a boastful man. Sir Home Gordon called him "pleasant but very conceited, persisting that he was the fastest bowler ever". John Trumble's testimony supports that one.

Harris, meanwhile, recalls that "I hit a ball back which injured his right hand; and he always said that he was never the same bowler after the second injury. He followed up his ball very far, and as I probably jumped in, he was very close, too close to put his hand in exactly the right place; else he was ordinarily a very good field to his own bowling, but so full of nerves, that a hard blow made more difference to him than to many."



I is interesting that three men should hold the same ridiculous superstition. It was probably a traditional joke that, for the sake of perpetuity, was passed down by Spoff to the McLeods.

You must get the Cashman bio on Spofforth one of the best I have read. Writing at its best

 

[neville cardus]

I wrote to him a year or so ago for advice about the sources that he used. Unfortunately, being such a kindly gentleman, he had donated them all to some or other library and couldn't remember any.

 

[neville cardus]

Given that you mentioned Monty there, I reckon that it would be pertinent to reproduce what Harris said of him in the Spofforth article: "I was talking to Mr. Noble early in the season at the Oval, and he told me that Fred Spofforth was seriously ill, and then put to me the astonishing question, 'Was he a great bowler?' It was about equivalent to asking if W. G. was a great bat. 'About the best I ever played,' was my reply; 'but did you never see him?' It was another shock to find that Noble, with whom I had never played, had never seen him bowl."

 

[archie mac]

Given that you mentioned Monty there, I reckon that it would be pertinent to reproduce what Harris said of him in the Spofforth article: "I was talking to Mr. Noble early in the season at the Oval, and he told me that Fred Spofforth was seriously ill, and then put to me the astonishing question, 'Was he a great bowler?' It was about equivalent to asking if W. G. was a great bat. 'About the best I ever played,' was my reply; 'but did you never see him?' It was another shock to find that Noble, with whom I had never played, had never seen him bowl."

Yes Harris, was quite a good writer imo

 

[neville cardus]

I haven't read either, so I should be curious to know how rate Harris's autobiography as compared to Hawke's.

 

[archie mac]

I haven't read either, so I should be curious to know how rate Harris's autobiography as compared to Hawke's.

I have read the Harris effort but not the Hawke effort, although I did read a bio of Hawke by Coldham (spelling)

I quite enjoyed the Harris effort

 

[neville cardus]

From what I have heard, there is a terrifying similarity between Hawke's tome and that of Kevie P.

 

[neville cardus]

You wouldn't be able to tell me which of the McLeod brothers it was, would you?

 

[archie mac]

You wouldn't be able to tell me which of the McLeod brothers it was, would you?

The one that was deaf (or at least hard of hearing)

I think that was Charlie

 

[Michaelf7777777]

Prehaps this superstition of Grace's is why Bradman put Grace at 6 in his All Time England side so that he wouldn't preform well and would therefore make it easier for his All Time Australia side to win.

 

[neville cardus]

It was a shamefully gratuitous selection. No doubt the stat-mongers would be able to confirm that W.G. scarcely ever batted at number six. If you are going to select Grace, select him as an opener. With all due respect to Sir Leonard, he wasn't in the same hamlet.

 

[Michaelf7777777]

I personally rank them about the same as batsman but Grace should get the go ahead over Hutton in an All Time England team due to him being a vastly superior bowler to Hutton.

 

[The Sean]

It was a shamefully gratuitous selection. No doubt the stat-mongers would be able to confirm that W.G. scarcely ever batted at number six. If you are going to select Grace, select him as an opener. With all due respect to Sir Leonard, he wasn't in the same hamlet.

Bradman, surprisingly, didn't seem to have done his research on that one - he claimed he wanted a batting all rounder over a bowling all rounder (hence his selection of Grace over Botham), but had seemingly decided that whoever he selected would bat at 6 irrespective of preferred position.

TBH though, I always cheat when I select an All Time England XI and pick Hobbs, Hutton and Grace, and bat the Doctor at 3. Just can't bear to leave any of them out of the side.

 

[neville cardus]

I personally rank them about the same as batsman

I am finding it very difficult to restrain myself from tearing violently into that post. The underrating of W.G. rivals even the as my least favourite thing about CricketWeb.

Grace was the Bradman of his day; in some respects, he was better. You really ought to look at his record (and Hutton's) in context before making statements like that.

 

[neville cardus]

Another ultra-superstitious contemporary of W.G. Grace was Frederick Robert Spofforth, the great "Demon Bowler" who did more than anyone else to establish Australia's cricketing worth in the hearts and minds of the British public.
Although he had about him a rather haughty and obnoxious air, Spofforth was really quite anxious and highly-strung. Ranji, Felix, Lilley and R.H. Lyttelton have all recounted how he would stay up late into the night and fret over the next day's batting army. Not even today's Australians, sticklers for preparation that they are, give as much thought to working out an opponent as he did.
For all his contradictory blend of self-confidence and anxiety, however, he had the strangest and most amusing of superstitions, and whether or not it really was one is debatable.
"Spoff has got a new plan today," Billy Murdoch, his bosom pal and captain, would announce, "and says it will come alright provided he does not meet a cross-eyed woman."
If, as was seldom the case, Spofforth's plan did not come to fruition, his explanation would be simple: "Well, you know, I met a cross-eyed woman, and what could I do after that?"

Victor Trumper, Spofforth's opposite in every other way, had a similar superstition about clergymen with "dog-collars". Once, after falling to Sydney Barnes (Spofforth's equal in every way), Trumper explained, "I knew I would not score with all those clergymen about."